The basic core of the squad was almost the same, three years later: Gordon Greenidge promising that this time really would be his final tour, as did Viv Richards and wicketkeeper Jeff Dujon, while Desmond Haynes was also aging but would hang around a few years yet, Gus Logie had the intention to do likewise, Richie Richardson had matured into one of the best batsmen in the world - throughout the tour he fought with England's Gooch and Smith over this designation, the actual ranking changing hands several times - and Carl Hooper also now sure of his place.

For the bowlers, Malcolm Marshall was already planning to join Richards, Greenidge and Dujon in retirement after the tour, but Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, both fairly new in 1988, were now seasoned regulars with many more years in the side ahead of them.

His long search for a reliable opening partner seemed to have been ended by the emergence of Michael Atherton, who had made the position his own over the previous year with centuries against New Zealand, India and Australia.

The lively fast-medium swing of Phil DeFreitas had made him a first choice pick in English conditions: Chris Lewis was of similar repute, but untried, as a bowler with pretensions to batting, while the military-medium of Derek Pringle had slowed down recently but become more accurate, and Steve Watkin of Glamorgan had been taking wickets by the hatful in county cricket.

After the disasters of the 1988 and 1989 home series against West Indies and Australia, and the loss of a squad of players to the rebel 1989 tour of South Africa, England had rebuilt under Gooch.

Sadly the 1990-1 Ashes tour of Australia had seen a significant reversal of fortune, with Fraser lost to injury, Malcolm losing his accuracy when asked to bowl long spells in an attack that was one man light, regular middle-order batting collapses undoing good starts, Gower (despite two centuries) and the promising John Morris jettisoned for off-pitch issues: and even the promising start of Tufnell in which his bowling nearly won the 3rd Test at Sydney was undone by disciplinary shortcomings.

DeFreitas, Lewis, Pringle, Illingworth (on debut) and even Gooch backed him up superbly with the ball, Richards was the only man to reach 30, and it took some unlikely slogging from Walsh and Ambrose to raise a semi-respectable total of 173/8.

In response, England looked set fair at 80/2 despite poor weather and bad light causing frequent delays, but Lamb and Fairbrother fell unexpectedly to Hooper before play was abandoned for the night, the match spilling into a second day.

West Indies fared better with the bat in the third match at Lord's - only the makeshift Simmons/Dujon opening partnership failed outright, Lara coming in during the middle order to replace Greenidge.

In response, England won at a canter despite the early dismissals of Gooch and Atherton, as Fairbrother (113) and Hick (86*) knocked off the runs almost without breaking a sweat, with nearly ten overs to spare.

Devon Malcolm returned to the bowling attack, joining Pringle and DeFreitas, and a debut was also handed to Steve Watkin, it being thought that the conditions would suit the tall seam-up Glamorgan bowler (and he was the closest like-for-like replacement for Fraser, for whom this pitch could have been tailor-made had he not been out with his long-term injury.)

The rest of the team largely picked itself, with the only doubt being whether the young and promising Lara would get a chance at the expense of Logie: but the latter had long since established his credentials in English conditions.

On a pitch and weather conditions clearly favouring the bowlers, with multiple interruptions forecast (correctly) over all five days, England won the toss and batted first - reasoning that, awkward though things seemed, they would likely get worse rather than better.

Some late resistance from Pringle and DeFreitas saw England reach 174/7 at the close, and 198 all out on the second day: a total which looked very small when Simmons took off like a tornado, clouting boundaries off both Malcolm and Watkin.

Pringle, the other not-out overnight batsmen, could hardly get a run but managed to hang in there for ages - of the 98-run partnership, his share was 27, matching Ramprakash for second top score (no other batsman got more than 6).

England were unchanged for the Second Test at Lords, and only one change was made by the Windies: Patterson having sustained an injury, West Indies replaced him with debutant Ian Allen.

Once again Ramprakash ground his way to the mid-twenties but failed to go further: and when Gooch was deceived by Walsh, offering no stroke to a delivery which seamed up the famous Lord's slope and took out his off stump, England were a disastrous 84/5.

The Windies bowlers had their tails very much up, and threw everything they had at Smith and Russell: both struggled at first, but both hung on, to reach 110/5 by the end of the second day, barely half the way towards the follow-on target.

Russell continued to make 46, Pringle 35, DeFreitas 29, even Watkin hung around for ages for his 6, and when Malcolm finally fell, Smith was left on 148* and England's total of 354 was much closer to the Windies' first innings than anyone had had any right to expect.

When West Indies in turn crashed to 12 for 2, now just 77 runs ahead, the position was pretty much level with all to play for, but the last two days of the match were washed out by persistent rain and the game finished as a draw.

They had also considered recalling Botham, fit again after his torn hamstring in the first ODI, but it was not clear who was to be left out to replace him: in any event he saved them the bother by getting injured again and being unavailable for both this match and the next.

West Indies, in return, passed England's score with only three wickets down, and reached 253/4 by the end of the second day, the pick of the batsmen being Richardson with a fine century.

For a second time Lewis, coming in at number 10, attempted a one-man fightback, smashing his way to 65: and again, as he had done so often this series, Pringle was able to hold out obdurately at the other end when he had someone to support, and made 45.

As a consequence, their replacement batsman was the unlikely figure of Clayton Lambert, who had not even been in the initial squad, but had been belatedly called up after Logie's injury simply because he was playing professional league cricket in England at the time and had made an ODI debut a couple of years previously.

England made more changes, not just in personnel but in formation since they decided to play five specialist bowlers, owing to the need to bowl Windies out twice if they were to win the match and draw the series.

Ramprakash, Stewart, Botham and Lewis all put on decent scores in support - although Botham was dismissed in bizarre fashion, when he attempted to hook a short delivery from Ambrose, missed, was hit on the helmet, spun around, toppled towards his stumps, tried to hurdle them and didn't quite make it, to be out hit-wicket, sparking a famous commentary-box giggling fit between Brian Johnston and Jonathan Agnew involving the immortal phrase "he didn't quite manage to get his leg over".

Even Lawrence got in on the act, hitting a boundary that somehow went straight over Dujon's head behind the stumps: England finished on 419, matching the Windies' effort at Lords as the highest team total of the series.

The remaining wickets collapsed in a heap, mostly to the delighted Tufnell, most of them off wild, eyes-off-the-ball slogs, leaving the astonished Haynes carrying his bat for 75 not out at the other end.

Richards, needing 20 to preserve a career batting average of 50 at his retirement, made 60, and received three standing ovations - one when he got to 21, another for his fifty, and the biggest of all as he left the ground for the last time, dismissed by Lawrence.

Dujon also fell cheaply to Lawrence for the second time in the match - with the assistance of a distraction from an annoyingly persistent pigeon, which refused to leave the playing surface - and West Indies finished day 4 on 356/6, Richardson having scored a century and Marshall, potentially dangerous, on 17.